This file, "currentcontents", will be updated regularly
as new material
is added to this ftp service.

The ascii files on here are electronic reprints (and occasional
preprints
or lecture transcripts) of journal articles by Charles T. Tart,
Professor
Emeritus in Psychology of the University of California at Davis,
in such
areas as altered states of consciousness, hypnosis, sleep, dreaming,
meditation, parapsychology, transpersonal psychology, etc.

Abstract: A case study is reported in which the author, a
psychologist, began spontaneously saying an unusual word, "coup d'etat"
aloud repeatedly, and then received a letter from a Mrs. Coudetat
the following day. Several psychological processes which may
distort psi impressions or bury them under noise are then dis-
cussed with respect to this and other cases, namely "analytical"
and "associative" overlay, which may add confusing analytical
and
associative material and "theoretical overlay", which
can bias
interpretation of psychological factors. [analovr.asc]

"BOOKS-BY-CTT" - Current availability of published books
by Charles T. Tart [cttbooks.asc]

Abstract: "The standard psychological procedure for teaching
skilled
behavior to an organism (whether human or animal) consists of
administering immediate reward when the correct response is emitted
by
the organism, and/or administering punishment when the incorrect
response is emitted. If reward and punishment cannot be clearly
associated with correct and incorrect responses by the organism,
the desired behavior is not learned or, if already present, is
extinguished. An analysis of the typical card guessing test situation
in parapsychology suggests that it is an extinction paradigm.
Empirical
support of this hypothesis is provided by the fact that the scores
of even the highest-scoring subjects who have come into the laboratory
have finally fallen off to chance in almost all cases, as would
be
expected if they were subjected to an extinction procedure. This
article makes a plea that the basic principles of learning theory
be
applied to parapsychological tests in an attempt to have subjects
learn to use their psi abilities more effectively rather than
extinguishing whatever abilities they have." [cardgues.asc]

Abstract: Jung's concept of meaningful but acausal events,
synchronistic events, has intrigued and confused scientists for
decades. For increased clarity, this paper distinguishes several
types of causal events from synchronistic ones. Physical
causality postulates a physical mechanism to account for
meaningful correlations between events, psychological causality
a
psychological mechanism. Presumed physical causality and presumed
psychological causality are categories of faith that puzzling
correlations will eventually be explained by straightforward
extensions of current knowledge. State-specific causality
recognizes the limited and semi arbitrary qualities of our
ordinary state of consciousness, as noted in the author's systems
approach to consciousness, and the possibility that different
cognitive styles in altered states can make puzzling correlations
comprehensible and causal while in the altered state. Paranormal
causality results when psi abilities (telepathy, clairvoyance,
precognition, or psychokinesis) cause a correlation between
events, although the mechanics of these processes are currently
unknown. Being-specific synchronistic causality represents
genuinely causal relationships that we are forever unable to
satisfactorily grasp because of the inherent limits of human
nature. Absolute synchronicity is genuine, meaningful
relationship between events that is actually acausal: the
category is definable, but may not be empirically useful. [causyn.asc]

"Unacknowledged fears of psi can create unconsciously motivated
behaviors that inhibit and/or distort the operation of psi in
the
laboratory. Observations suggest that unacknowledged fear of
psi is
widespread among parapsychologists, as well as others. The ingenious
approaches of K. Batcheldor and J. Isaacs for producing psi may
be
effective because they bypass fears of psi, but have long-term
limitations through not dealing directly with it. A social masking
theory of psi inhibition and a primal conflict theory of psi inhibition
are discussed, and 10 strategies for dealing with this fear are
presented.
Denial, avoidance of triggering circumstances, rationalization/distraction,
and dissociation/repression strategies all have inherent psychopathological
aspects. Desensitization and bypass defenses have healthy as
well as
psychopathological aspects. Cognitive/affective acknowledgment,
learning
adaptive coping skills, accepting responsibility, and personal
growth
strategies are the most desirable ways of handling the problem
of the
fear of psi." [dealingw.asc]

"EMERGENT-CONSCIOUSNESS" - Book chapter, 1978, a systems
understanding of the nature of consciousness and states of consciousness,
taking psi phenomena into account. Summary as follows:

"I have proposed the beginnings of a dualistic theory
of
consciousness, Emergent Interactionism, which is intended to be
scientifically useful and has empirical, testable consequences.
The existence of psi phenomena, which are paraconceptual for a
physicalistic monism, is the basic evidence for a pragmatic
dualism, a recognition of the need to understand consciousness
in
terms of two qualitatively different aspects of reality, what
I
have called the B system, the brain, body, and nervous system
and
the physical laws which govern it, and the M/L system, the mental
and life aspects of reality. Consciousness is seen as a system
property, an emergent from the auto-psi interaction of the B and
M/L systems. Ultimate understanding of consciousness, then, while
it requires further and extensive development of conventional
approaches in the study of brain functioning and physical law,
also requires extensive development of our knowledge of psi, as
well as development of general systems theory so principles of
emergence in complex systems can be better understood. While this
view is complex, it is more adequate to the reality of psi than
a
physicalistic monism, and exciting discoveries await us!"
[emeergent.asc]

Abstract. Eight hypnotist-experimenters administered a
standardized suggestibility test to subjects under two separate
experimental conditions. The experimenters understood the
problem of experimenter bias, knew that they were being checked,
and felt that they had treated both groups alike, yet judges were
able to tell under which condition the subjects were tested by
listening to the performances of the experimenters. [ebiasinh.asc]

Ostensibly objective scientists frequently show quite irrational
and
unethical behavior when presented with data about psi (psychic
phenomena), the paranormal, subtle energies, and the like.
Observations and some research suggests that, in addition to
ignorance, semi-consciousness and unacknowledged fears of psi
affect their thought and behaviors. Even researchers who advocate
the importance of psi sometimes show similar distorted behavior,
especially when effect size goes beyond statistically-significant-but-
practically-trivial effects and become strong. Such unrecognized
and
unacknowledged resistance can sabotage both research and
application. The researcher is not independent of the research
in
these areas. This paper focuses on recognizing and dealing with
these widespread ambivalences and fears about psi phenomena.
[issseem.asc]

"FIVE-MEDITATIONS" - Introduction to and review of an
excellent audio
tape by meditation teacher Shinzen Young, a pioneer in adapting
Eastern
meditation techniques for the modern Western mind. [******]

"GAME-OF-GAMES" - Article, 1985, proposing a game format
designed
to train people to recognize and transcend their own cultural
biases. [gamegame.asc]

Abstract: The major problem in parapsychological research is the
lack of reproducibility of strong manifestations of psi. Research
on correlates of psi, when it usually manifests so weakly, is
un-
likely to be productive. The author's theory that provision of
immediate feedback of results might allow learning of stronger
and more stable psi behavior will, if true, allow a major break
through in parapsychology. In the four years since the publica-
tion of data (the first Training Study, TS) supportive of the
theory, no laboratory other than the author's has attempted to
replicate the procedure, but a voluminous amount of largely
speculative criticism of the first TS has been published. Are
parapsychologists really interested in producing strong and
reliable manifestation of psi?

Kennedy's paper centers on speculations that an apparent
ly uniquely successful experimenter might have been incompetent
or dishonest. No evidence really supports such speculations, nor
do the data support the idea of that experimenter's uniqueness.
Some perturbations in the target sequences analyzed by Kennedy
are explicable as psychokinetic perturbations of the electronic
random generator used, and, in any case, are of very small magni
tude compared to the magnitude of psi (sometimes operating more
than 10% of the time for the overall experiment, p<10-24, two-
tailed) manifested in the first TS. Further experimental work
will be more productive than endless speculation. [imprvesp.asc]

Quantification of the amount of information acquired
in successful, forced-choice ESP experiments is possible using
a
measure of the average number of bits per trial. Using this
measure, 53 studies of present-time ESP, where the percipient
attempted to call currently existing targets, and 32 studies of
precognitive ESP, where the percipient attempted to call targets
that would only be generated (by a random process) at some later
time, were reviewed. A striking and robust performance dif-
ference was found: present-time ESP can work up to 10 times as
well as precognitive ESP in forced-choice tests. Three theories
are proposed to account for this difference: a psychological
theory that there are generally held biases against precognition
in Western culture, so percipients don't try as hard: a two-
process theory that present-time ESP and precognition are two
basically different processes, with inherently different charac-
teristics: and a temporal-break theory that ESP is a unitary
process, but something about the nature of time itself attenuates
ESP performance that extends into the future. [inforate.asc]

"J-TRANSPERSONAL-PSYCH-ARTICLES" - Note on what articles
of CTT's are available by ordering back issues of the Journal
of
Transpersonal Psychology. Journal will not give permission to
post
to this ftp area, as sales of back issues are essential for the
Journal's
survival. [jtpstuff.asc]

As a guide to further experiments, the chief experiential
effects
of marijuana have been elucidated with the help of a detailed
questionnaire given to seasoned marijuana users whose experiences,
it seems are almost entirely pleasant. [maritox.asc]

General social beliefs that are acquired and operate in
our
ordinary state of consciousness usually deny the reality of
psychic phenomena and thereby probably inhibit psychic
functioning. Anecdotal reports, however, suggest that ostensibly
paranormal phenomena often occur in association with altered
states of consciousness. This study focuses on the altered state
of marijuana intoxication. A questionnaire study of 150
experienced marijuana users found that 76% believed in ESP, with
frequent reports of experiences while intoxicated that were
interpreted as psychic. Sixty nine percent reported that they
had experienced telepathy while intoxicated, 32% reported
precognition and 13% reported psychokinesis. Fifty percent had
experienced seeing auras around people and 44% reported
out-of-the-body experiences. These findings suggest that
marijuana, used under the proper psychological conditions, might
facilitate the manifestation of psi. No studies are known in
which ESP performance was tested under laboratory conditions
while percipients were intoxicated with marijuana, but a 1975
study (Tart, 1975; 1976) found a positive correlation between
laboratory ESP scoring and frequency of marijuana use outside
the
laboratory in a student population. This study also found a
negative correlation between ESP scoring and frequency of alcohol
use in everyday life. A 1977 laboratory study (Tart, 1977)
failed to confirm these findings. Differences between the
studies are discussed, as is the importance of the ostensible
paranormality of various experiences associated with marijuana
intoxication on belief systems, irregardless of whether such
experiences are actually paranormal. [marpsi.asc]

"MIND-EMBODIED-VIRTUAL-REALITY" - Book chapter, 1993,
extension of ideas on using computer-generated virtual reality
as a model
for the mind. Full title is "Mind Embodied! Computer-Generated
Virtual
Reality as a New, Dualistic-Interactive Model for Transpersonal
Psychology." [mindembo.asc]

Abstract: The cultivation of mindfulness, clear moment-to-moment
awareness of what is actually happening, as opposed to the
typical distortions of perception caused by desires, fears,
attachments and other psychological defense mechanisms so
characteristic of ordinary consciousness, is an essential element
in personal and spiritual growth. Spiritual traditions such as
Buddhism have developed sophisticated methodologies for
developing mindfulness in specialized retreat situations, but
the
mindfulness and concentration often experienced therein does not
generalize well to daily life situations. Some principles of
generalizing mindfulness to daily life were used to design
specific exercises that were tested in two otherwise traditional
Buddhist vipassana ("mindfulness") meditation retreats.
The
exercises and their results are described. They proved useful
in
widening the scope of mindfulness, easing reentry into ordinary
life and enhancing the transfer of mindfulness to daily life.
[baraz.asc]

"OLYMPIA-DECLARATION" - formal declaration of importance
of
consciousness studies if the world is to survive, promulgated
by 100+
scientists at a 1993 conference near Olympia, Greece. [olympia.asc]

"ON-LINE-TEACHING" - 1995 report of pros and cons of
teaching an
online course at the graduate school level, dealing with altered
states of consciousness. Report made to the faculty of the Institute
of Transpersonal Psychology, Palo Alto, California, including
course
syllabus. [onlntch.asc]

A young woman who frequently had spontaneous out body
experiences was studied in a sleep laboratory for four nights.
She reported several partially out experiences and two full ones.
While the physiological data are limited by dependence on her
retrospective report in correlating physiological pattern with
the experience, it seems as if her out experiences occurred in
conjunction with a non-dreaming, non-awake brain wave stage
characterized by predominant slowed alpha activity from her brain
and no activation of the autonomic nervous system. Two incidents
occurring in the laboratory provide suggestive evidence that the
out of-the-body experiences had parapsychological concomitants
. [missz.asc]

~ monroe">
"OUT-OF-BODY ~ MONROE" - Journal article, 1967, reporting
on
EEG studies of Robert A. Monroe, who later became internationally
known for his books on his out-of-the-body experiences. Partial
sucess in having OBEs in the laboratory were accompanied by
interesting EEG changes. [monroe.asc]

Some people have such stable out-of-body experiences to particular
locales that they attribute an independent existence to them,
rather than considering them merely subjective. This paper discusses
how we could investigate such claims. [otherw.asc]

"PARAPSYCHOLOGY-FAQ" - gives web address of an excellent
FAQ on
scientific parapsychology prepared by leaders in the field.

Summary: "In individual sessions, eleven college students
sat in a
soundproof chamber and tried to guess when "subliminal stimuli"
were presented. At random intervals either: (a) an agent in
another soundproof room was electrically shocked; or (b) the
shock was delivered to a resistor. The subjects' skin
resistances, finger pulse volumes, and EEGs were continuously
recorded, and the EEGs were electronically analyzed.

The physiological responses of the subjects were
significantly related to the occurrence of both types of events,
showing a pattern for the group generally indicative of a higher
level of activation during the trials, viz.: (a) a faster and
more complex EEG pattern; (b) more frequent galvanic skin
responses; and (c) more frequent changes in finger pulse volume.
As the subjects' conscious guesses of when trials had occurred
did not differ from chance, they may be said to have responded
on
an "unconscious" level." [physcorr.asc]

Abstract: With the increasing use of immediate feedback of target
identity in parapsychological research, the question of
departures from randomicity (equiprobability and serial
independence) in target generators becomes important, as it is
possible that some percipients might identify such departures
and
develop a mathematical inference strategy for predicting targets,
thus artifactually inflating their scores. The key aspect of
randomicity of relevance is not lack of pattern per se, but the
predictability of the generator. It is shown that standard
Chi-square tests of randomicity are poor measures of
predictability in short to moderate length experiments. A direct
approach to the predictability of a possibly biased target source
has been developed, the 'Probabilistic Predictor Program' (PPP),
which is probably much more powerful than most human percipients
could be. The operation of the PPP is described in detail. The
PPP is then applied to both the target and response data of
Tart's first Training Study, where some small departures from
randomicity were found in the electronically generated target
sequences and, of course, in the percipient generated response
sequences. The PPP was found to occasionally score significantly
on the target sequences, but far less successfully than the actual
percipients did. The more biased response sequences were
predicted quite significantly by the PPP. Examination of the
internal displacement scoring patterns of the PPP was also
compared with the patterns of the actual percipients and found
to
be drastically different. For these two reasons, it was concluded
that use of mathematical inference strategies of the PPP sort
could have only accounted for a trivial portion of the extremely
high target scoring of the percipient S in the first Training
Study. While we should normally strive for completely random
target sequences, the PPP is offered as a powerful approach to
the question of predictability when departures from randomicity
do occur, and can be of use in working with other experimental
data.
[ppp.asc]

Abstract: Preliminary research suggests that ordinary people,
as well
as parapsychologists, may have pre- or unconscious fears of psi
that
affect their thinking about and reactions to it. What about people
who
are very heavily involved with psi in their daily lives, that
is,
psychics? This paper surveys the fears and ambivalences about
psi of
people who have worked on becoming psychic in the context of an
interest in personal growth. Fears expressed focus on the unknown
quality
to which psi opens one, loss of control, giving power to others
to
validate or invalidate one, confusion resulting from malicious
invalidation, distortions of self and psychic functioning resulting
from the need to please, forced self-changes, succumbing to others'
emotions, lack of criteria for validation of unusual experiences,
maladaptive loss of ordinary fears, fear of success, isolation
resulting
from an inability to communicate, invalidation of conventional
work
ethic values, frightening others, becoming ill from taking on
others'
problems, and problems in handling new sorts of power. [psychfea.asc]

Abstract: An alternative explanation of ostensible clairvoyance
has been that percipients precognize the future state of their
brain when they receive feedback about the target order. Older
studies of pure clairvoyance, where this possibility is
eliminated, suggest that clairvoyance exists, but these studies
have some methodological problems. In this investigation, a
computer tested clairvoyance (guessing numbers 1-10) with and
without feedback. Totals were recorded in the pure clairvoyance
condition only, so there could be no future inspection of target
orders by anyone. Percipients with no previous history of success
in laboratory psi tasks showed no results, but three talented
percipients showed success in the pure clairvoyance task in
accordance with their known beliefs, viz., significant
psi-hitting by the percipient who accepted pure clairvoyance and
significant psi-missing by the two who did not accept it. [pclairnf.asc]

"REV-TIBETAN-BOOK-LIVING-DYING" - Review of Sogyal Rinpoche's
book, "The Tibetan Book of Living and Dying," a book
that is ground
breaking both in providing Westerners with intellectual knowledge
of
Tibetan Buddhist ideas about death, dying, and the after-death
state, and
full of compassionate and practical advice for helping the dying,
whether they are Buddhist, Christian, atheist or agnostic. [tbld.asc]

"ROBERT-A-MONROE" - Robert A. Monroe, who honestly described
his
out-of-the body experiences in three books ("Journeys Out
of the Body,"
"Far Journeys," and "Ultimate Journey" helped
tens of thousands of
people cope with their unusual experiences. This is a personal
eulogy on the occasion of his death. [ram.asc]

Abstract: While values may be conditioned by known psychological
techniques, such values are mechanical, relative, and may yield
readily under stress. Mankind's deepest values have sprung from
the direct experiences of the founders of various religions,
experiences occurring in discrete altered states of consciousness
(d-ASCs). However the subsequent adaptation of these experiences
to cultures and religions-as-social-institutions makes them
relatively ineffective unless there are technologies for
experiential reaffirmation of such values.

Values formed from d-ASC experiences are extremely powerful,
yet our scientific understanding of d-ASCs is still very
fragmented and poor. To acquire an adequate understanding of
d-ASCs and the "mystical" and value experiences resulting
from
them requires a large expansion of conventional research, but,
even more importantly, it requires the development of
state-specific sciences, the practice of scientific method by
investigators who are experiencing the d-ASCs themselves. The
development of such sciences will provide the ground-work of an
adequate understanding that in turn can lead to practical
implementation by creating deep value experiences such as the
unity of life and an ecological ethic, values which will be
powerful because they are based on deep personal experience
rather than being shoulds that are taught externally. Practical
problems of such implementation are also discussed. [sci&val.asc]

"STATE-SPECIFIC-SCIENCES" - Originally published in
"Science,"
1972, Vol. 176, pp. 1203-1210 as States of Consciousness and State-
Specific Sciences.

Describes the nature of altered states of consciousness (ASCs)
in
general and the basic nature of scientific method, and proposes
that
an adequate scientific understanding of consciousness must be
a
multi-state, multi-perspectival understanding. In addition to
working
to understand some altered state in our ordinary, so-called "normal"
state,
researchers must learn to enter and stabilize various altered
states
and conduct observation, experimentation, and theorizing in those
states in order to broaden ordinary perspective with the state-specific
perceptions, styles of thinking, and styles of observation only
available in ASCs. [sss.asc]

Abstract: To achieve conscious control of psi, a motivated,
active
participant in a repeated-calling psi test must learn to scan
and
categorize the contents of his experiential field on each trial
before
making a response. If immediate feedback as to the correct target
is
then provided, he can form hypotheses as to which aspects of his
experiential field (operating signals) are associated with correct
psi responses and what sorts of control strategies are likely
to
produce useful operating signals. Immediate feedback allows testing
and refinement of these hypotheses. The common decline effect
in psi
performance is seen as caused by the confusion resulting from
lack of immediate feedback in most earlier studies. Conscious
control
of psi would eventually involve recognition by the person of momentary
operating signals associated with success, such that he would
go ahead
and respond, and/or recognition of operating signals (or lack
of them)
associated with failure, such that he would not respond, but would
wait
for or induce a change in his internal condition that was associated
with success. Various factors affecting immediate feedback training
are
discussed. [intproc.asc]

"TRANSPERSONAL-PSYCHOLOGY-STATE-OF-THE-ART-1996" Lecture
from the
1996 meeting of the Association for Transpersonal Psychology annual
meeting at Asilomar, California, assessing the state of the art
and
focusing on the need to learn enough to about individual differences
to adequately prescribe effective spiritual paths for people.

"TRANSPERSONAL-REALITIES?" - Text of Invited Address
to the
American Psychological Association, 1978, with the full title
"Transpersonal Realities or Neurophysiological Illusions:
Toward an
Empirically Testable Dualism." Abstract as follows:

Transpersonal experiences, in which a person seems to go
beyond (trans) the limits of his body and mind, are exceptionally
important to their experiencers, and can form the basis of
religions and philosophies, yet the current scientific position
that totally equates consciousness with brain functioning
automatically views the content of these vital experiences as
illusions and delusions. Transpersonal psychology is thus reduced
to the study of hallucinations. More than 600 experiments,
however, provide first-class scientific evidence for the
existence of paraconceptual phenomena such as extrasensory
perception (ESP), phenomena that cannot be explained in terms
of
brain processes and which argue that some aspects of
consciousness are of a qualitatively different nature than
physical processes. This paper presents a theory of Emergent
Interactionism, in which consciousness is seen as an emergent
systems product of two qualitatively different systems, the brain
or B system on the one hand, and the mind/life or M\L system on
the other. Psi phenomena, ESP and psychokinesis (PK) are the
mechanism of interaction between the B and M\L systems. Thus psi
phenomena are seen as common within a person, it is only their
manifestation outside the body to produce information about
distant events in the world that is unusual. In contrast to
philosophical theories of dualism, Emergent Interactionism has
testable consequences, and so it is proposed as a scientific
theory rather than a philosophy. From this point of view,
transpersonal experiences, rather than necessarily being
illusory, may be valid and important insights into the nature
of
human consciousness. [tranrel.asc]

Abstract: A new technological model of consciousness is that
of
computer-generated virtual reality. By wearing goggles containing
color TV sets and earphones, a computer can control a person's
main sensory input, coordinating it with actual body movements
tracked by sensors, giving the "traveler" a virtual
body that can
interact with virtual objects. More than one person can enter
the
same virtual reality and interact with other travelers there.
Given psychological identification, a virtual reality can quickly
become an almost total reality. Developing applications, such
as
those in architecture, are discussed. Contemporary neurology and
psychology show that we already live in one or more internal
virtual realities, generated by neurological and psychological
processes. Stable patterns, stabilized systems of these internal
virtual realities, constitute states of consciousness, our
ordinary personality, and multiple personalities.
Computer-generated virtual realities offer intriguing
possibilities for developing diagnostic, inductive,
psychotherapeutic and training techniques that can extend and
supplement current ones. [multiple.asc]